Emily Appleby

Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Education, 2009

When Emily Appleby graduated in July 2009 with a PGCE in Primary Education, she had her career all planned out - get a job teaching in a nearby village school, buy a nice little place and settle down to a cosy life. What she never imagined was that by January 2010 she would be half way around the world, living a life that couldn’t be more different.

“The months following my graduation were very hard. Jobs were scarce and teachers were competing against 100s of others for a single teaching post. I spent endless days completing application forms, writing letters of application and attending interviews. By my sixth or seventh interview, I was becoming tired of hearing that I had been close to being offered the position, if only I had a little more experience.

“Having gone straight from college to University, then straight from University to my PGCE, I hadn’t had the extra teaching and life experience that many other candidates had. This prompted me to start searching for teaching opportunities outside of the leafy suburbs!

A new direction, a new destination

“As I looked further afield, I realised that compared to jobs in England, international jobs were available in abundance. I came across a job teaching English in Singapore, which really interested me and so I applied.

“The ‘right experience’ was once again a key factor, but as they say, “you have to be in it to win it” and so I spent many hours reviewing my CV and letter of application and sent them off. To my great surprise, I had a phone call the next day inviting me for an interview in London. Two months later I had been interviewed, offered a post, and had booked my one way ticket! From the moment I accepted the position, I knew that I had said “yes” to a great opportunity.

Seeing the world

“I have been working in Singapore for a year now and I have grown so much as a teacher. I have had the opportunity to work with the most privileged children and also with the most under-privileged, each being challenging and rewarding in different ways.

“Living in Singapore is an amazing experience and I’ve also had the chance to do my own travelling. So far I have visited Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam and I still have at least one more year in which I hope to visit Japan and China.

Seeing the native tribes of Borneo and the crystal clear waters surrounding the remote islands in the South China Sea, make you realise that there is so much you don’t know about the world and I really can’t wait to find out more!

Plans for the future

“It is my plan to return to England after my second year in Singapore. I have now got so much more to say and give and I am going to use the experiences I have gained abroad to get me that teaching job I kept missing out on in the beginning. It just goes to show that the opportunities are always out there – I took mine and I now look forward to a long and fulfilling career in education.”